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Public Information Services Group

Office of the Chief Information Officer

January 22, 2015

Assignment Search

Webinar

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Training Objectives

• Introduction

• Conducting an assignment search on the web

• New features and functionality for assignment searching

• How to perform common searches

• View query history

• Additional resources

• Coming Soon

What are Assignments?

• An assignment is a conveyance or transfer of

ownership of a patent or patent application

• The vast majority of assignments are recorded

with the USPTO

• Recordation is not required

• Assignments are recorded in an Assignment

Database according to their “conveyance” type

and given a Reel and Frame number

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Assignment Database

• Database contains all recorded patent assignment

information from August 1980 through today

• Owners voluntarily record assignment information in the

database

• Trademark ownership information is included in the

Trademark Assignment Database, available at

http://assignments.uspto.gov/assignments/q?db=tm

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Assignment Searching

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• New tool for searching patent assignment data

• Replaces current tool

• Uses a clean, modern user interface

• Contains additional search fields and search

functionality

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Assignment Searching www.uspto.gov Patents Index page

Assignment Searching www.uspto.gov/patents/index.jsp

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Find Assignment Search http://assignment.uspto.gov

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Advanced Search

Assignment Search Scenarios

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• Reel and Frame

• Patent Number

• Assignee/Assignor

• New Search Functionality

• Filter Search Results

• Multi-Field Search

• Fuzzy Search

• Wildcard Search

• Boolean Search

Reel and Frame Search 1

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Reel and Frame Search 2

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Reel and Frame Search 3

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Patent Number Search 1

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Patent Number Search 2

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Patent Number Search 3

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Assignee / Assignor Search 1

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Enter “ibm” in the “Search” box

Assignee / Assignor Search 2

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Assignee / Assignor Search 3

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Multi-Field Search 1

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Enter “motorola” in the “Assignor” box and “google” in the

“Assignee” box

Multi-Field Search 2

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Fuzzy Search 1

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Enter “Treck~” in the “Assignee” box and “suspension” in the

“Invention Title” box

Fuzzy Search 2

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Wildcard Search 1

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Enter the word “scan*” in the “Assignee Name” box

Wildcard Search 2

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Boolean Search 1

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Boolean Search 2

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Query History

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Additional Resources

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Coming Soon

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• Late January 2015* (Version 1.1)

– Tooltip and FAQ updates

– Fixes to inconsistent highlighting and formatting

• May 2015* (Version 2.0)

– Inclusion of Trademark assignments

– Additional company name synonyms

– Result display improvements

– Display options improvements

– Results exporting capability

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Conclusion

• Conducting an assignment search on the web

• New features and functionality

• How to perform common assignment searches

• View query history

• Additional resources

• Coming soon

Help with Assignment Searching

• FAQs online

• Email: aotw@uspto.gov

• Telephone: 571-272-3350

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Questions?

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